Robert McCoppin

Writer

Robert McCoppin reports breaking news and cultural trends in the suburbs for the Tribune. He’s also covered the courts, health care and City Hall for the Daily Herald, UPI and the City News Bureau. He loves his family, music, the outdoors and the smell of barbecue on the lakefront after surviving a Chicago winter.

Recent Articles

Medical marijuana growers, once banned from making political contributions, are now spending money to influence the expected legalization of recreational cannabis in Illinois in an effort to keep that market to themselves — at least temporarily. Leading members of the industry have formed a political...

Seventeen-year-old Morgan Holmes has been able to participate in Boy Scouts activities for a few years, but she was never allowed to become a full-fledged member of the program. That changed this month when the Boy Scouts of America began accepting girls from fifth grade through high school into...

A 15-year-old boy is the second teenager charged with murder in connection with the alleged gang-related shooting of a young man near Palatine, police announced Monday. Prosecutors previously had charged 16-year-old Andre Naydenov with murder in the Feb. 1 shooting death of 20-year-old Jose Castaneda....

A Democratic state lawmaker has filed a bill to legalize recreational marijuana in Illinois that likely goes further than other legislators prefer, but it has officially started the debate over complex legislation that will need to serve many interests. The bill, introduced Jan. 25 by Rep. Carol...

The Roman Catholic bishops of Illinois on Monday came out against the legalization of recreational marijuana, warning that it will only worsen problems of drug use and addiction. The six bishops of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, including Archdiocese of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, cited...

After at least six lawsuits and almost 10 years in court, a resolution may be approaching over whether a 400-acre horse farm in Barrington Hills will become forest preserve property. The legal tug of war has led to bad blood between the prior purchasers of the property and officials from the Forest...

Cookies baked in ovens while Lego cities took form in living rooms. Remnants of craft projects piled high on kitchen tables, and yes, the TV was turned on. Parents worked hard to fight kids’ boredom this week as arctic temperatures closed schools and day care centers for two days, or in some cases...

As she bikes or walks to work at the Field Museum on especially cold days, Akiko Shinya sometimes sniffs and feels the inside of her nostrils freeze, or blinks and feels her eyelashes briefly freeze together. That’s when she flashes back to fossil-hunting in Antarctica. “I kind of like that sensation...